Beginners and Beyond

Bigfoot Half Marathon RR (Read 80 times)

This weekend Shane and I ran the Bigfoot Half Marathon in Kittaning, PA. It's a small race and very low key. The price is good thanks to cotton race shirts and no finisher medals. The race course starts on a road and then moves to the Armstrong Trail which is a sandy/crushed limestone trail. It was mostly downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back and the sandy surface seemed to absorb the force of pushing off which made it really hard to maintain pace. I had a small hope that I might be able to take an age group award at such a small event.

Race morning I woke up about 10 minutes before we needed to leave. I decided to roll over and go back to sleep but Shane dragged me out of bed. I threw on some clothes, took breakfast into the car with me, and somehow managed to get us to the YMCA in one piece and with a little time to spare. We checked in and I hit the rest rooms and then we lined up to start. The 5k and the half marathon started together but there was roughly 125 runners total so it really didn't matter.

I lined up about 1/3 of the way back from the starting line to allow the faster 5k runners some space. I probably should have moved up a little because I was dodging people from the gun until the first mile marker. I had planned to hold back and make this just another long run but I started to feel competitive as I looked up the trail and saw very few ponytails. I also could see another runner that I beat by just a bit last week and I couldn't help wanting to beat him again.

I ran with another woman for the first 4-5 miles. We were putting out a good pace, right around 9:10-9:20 per mile. I couldn't help worrying that she would surge and I would lose her though. So I made the first move, left her, and caught my rabbit. I passed him just before the turn around and then gapped him by maybe 1-2 minutes. Counting women on the way to the turn around I was in 11th place but I could tell the 10th place woman was fading quickly. Top 10 sounded like a good way to start my day.

This is Shane's bib, shirt, and medal but I'm too lazy to take my own pic.

As I approached mile 8 I started to feel the effects of all the miles and racing I've been doing. My will and my legs were fading but I was slowly closing the gap on the 10th woman. Just as I caught her the woman I'd been running with at the beginning blew by us. She had to be doing sub-9 minute miles. I passed the now-11th woman and increased my pace again but I couldn't catch the new number 10.

I started to drag again as I approached the 10 mile mark and the woman increased her lead. At this point my rabbit popped up right behind my shoulder and scared the heck out of me! I hadn't expected him to catch me but I was ready for some company. We stuck together through the last 4-ish miles and put the hammer down, laying down a 9:05 pace for the rest of the way.

I kept trying to catch the woman ahead of me but she kept her pace steady and maintained her lead through the finish. I managed to surge at the end and beat my rabbit by 7 seconds which was somewhat satisfying although I wouldn't have held that pace without him so it kind of evens out.

Shane got a pic of me crossing the line

My official time was 2:02:14. So freaking close to sub-2! If only I hadn't slowed down from 8-10! I was 31/44 overall and 3/8 in my age group so I achieved my dream of getting a medal. Shane was 13th overall and 2nd in his age group so it was a good day for both of us. I celebrated by doing 7.5 more miles after lunch to make it 20.6 for the day and then doing 15 more today. I'd say a 62 mile week is a good way to celebrate my first AG award in a half marathon!

I would love to see what you can do trained and tapered for a half marathon. As it is, you do great with some of the tough courses you run on. Congrats on the AG placement!

LRB, I believe if I could just focus on one distance and train and taper for it, I would be a serious local contender. But my running ADHD makes it difficult. I like to vary my distance, terrain, and difficulty too much! Plus I like to race just about every weekend. This was my 81st lifetime race and only 2 of those were prior to 2010.

LRB, I believe if I could just focus on one distance and train and taper for it, I would be a serious local contender. But my running ADHD makes it difficult. I like to vary my distance, terrain, and difficulty too much! Plus I like to race just about every weekend. This was my 81st lifetime race and only 2 of those were prior to 2010.

I feel you.

Know thyself

happylily

posted: 4/10/2013 at 9:34 AM

Congratulations on an excellent job! You've been racing quite a bit lately!